Various writing or tablet arm assemblies which are attached to a seat assembly or arm thereof are known. Writing tablets may be fixed to an armrest or other portion of the seat assembly. However, fixed writing tablets have several disadvantages particularly with respect to a user's ease of egress from the seat assembly.
Other writing tablets are hinged and moveable between an in-use or working position and a stored position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,964 to Phoon teaches a writing tablet movable between a stored position and an in-use position via a swivel joint interposed between the writing tablet and a frame. The swivel joint has two planar surfaces disposed at forty-five (45) degrees with respect to one another. The writing tablet is rotatable approximately one-hundred and eighty (180) degrees about the swivel joint.
While U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,964 provides an improvement over fixed writing tablets, there are still significant disadvantages. For example, the writing tablet taught by Phoon may simultaneously rotate in two orientations, i.e., about both of the two planar surfaces of the swivel joint. Therefore, in operation, the writing tablet is prone to jamming or binding up when the writing tablet rotates partially about each surface at the same time.
The writing tablet taught by Phoon also stores within the user's seating space and therefore consumes seating space and also requires the user to adjust or move his/her position to both access and store the writing tablet, or risk being impacted. Furthermore, the writing tablet extends well beyond the armrest to which it is attached at intermediate points during its rotation. Therefore, increased lateral clearance is required in the seat assembly to avoid impacting adjacent persons or objects, such as a wall. Also, the writing tablet is stored in a position extending behind the plane of the seat back, thereby in some applications consuming space in a row of the seating behind the seat to which it is attached.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,997 to Koh teaches a foldable table for a chair that is rotateable from a horizontal working position to a vertical storing position. The foldable table taught by Koh, however, also has several disadvantages. First, it operates above an armrest of the chair to which it is attached and substantially obstructs the armrest while the table is in its extended position. Second, the foldable table taught by Koh is not adaptable for use in a row of adjacent seats or on a seat in close proximity to an object to wall. For example, in a row of adjacent seats, the table would not only obstruct the armrest of its user but also that of an adjacent user. The foldable table also extends well beyond the armrest and into space adjacent to the seat while in the working and storing positions, and during rotation between the two positions. Like Phoon, the foldable table taught by Koh appears to also be free to simultaneously rotate in two orientations and could likely jam or bind up in operation.
It is therefore desired to provide an improved tablet arm assembly which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.